John Oates: Reunion

Hall and Oates are not getting back together and you’d be foolish to think that the latter half of the duo is trying to make amends with the ironic title on this LP. Instead, Reunion’s meaning is deeply personal – a reference to John Oates’ 100 year old ailing father and his inevitable future reunion with his wife in heaven. Listeners take heed – there are no synth pop hits here. Similar to how Oates explored country on Arkansas (2018), this new album delves into gospel and folk music. Each song expresses Oates’ same passion and care. Although this is sometimes a good thing, most other times it ends up being too melodramatic or saccharine.

“Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee” is an example of the former, a pleasant little folk ditty recounting an influential folk/blues partnership of the past. He creates earworms with lines like “They sang the blues in different keys/ And keep on dreamin’ what could be/ And I’ll walk for you and you’ll see for me/ Said Sonny Terry to Brownie McGhee,” providing one of the most enjoyable pieces on the album. Another is the live track “Anytime (Live from the D’Addario Sessions),” highlighting one of the best aspects of the album: the stringed instrument accompaniments.

However, there are issues in this album, mostly resulting from Oates trying too hard to pull on the heartstrings with sappy lyrics, vocal theatrics and melodramatic composition choices. Take “This Field of Mine,” where Oates explains how he will always own this land because his family put so much work into the property. His voice cracks and he sounds like he’s about to cry as he sings the chorus, “So draw your big black line through rocks, and clay, and the sands of time/ The here and now is one step from forever/ So you can build and burn and borrow and put up your posted signs/But this field is mine.” With these vocal affectations and lyrics, he seems to be attempting to elicit the same feelings from the listener. However, it falls flat: from both the unintentionally humorous lyrics that imply Oates would somehow have an issue with a land dispute and a swell of gospel singers and sympathetic strings that seem over the top.

It unfortunately gets worse as the album continues. “All I Am” is an amalgamation of adult contemporary pop and a saccharine hymn in a church service. Lines like “All I am is a ground below the stars/ All I am is a story written in scars/ Stepping, standing through the shifting sand/ In the end that’s all I am” are delivered with conviction by Oates, but the listener will find it all comes across too sentimental to connect.

Overall, this is the greatest problem with Reunion. It is an album that means a lot to Oates, but it’s unlikely the listener will feel the same way. In Oates’ mind, what’s important now for him is to reunite with his own passions rather than worry about what the listener may think. By no means does this make the LP a bad record, but it doesn’t make it a great one either.